Of Wine & Weddings

We met today at 8am. We were done by 11am, so I was still in time to begin the day doing Sofia's birthday.
The meeting was meant to clarify and wrap up what was started a couple of weeks back. I think we did that. Since Michael did the Minutes last time, I volunteered to do them this time. We're getting into the habit now of doing things by the book, even voting for heaven's sake! It's nice to see give and take.
Something was wrong with the forecast on the coming year's spending and I think our quick fix focussed on the wrong thing so what was established is still wrong. Out of three sets of numbers saying the same thing, only one was right...it wasn't obvious until I picked up the spreadsheet again later in the day to see what the issue is. I'll re-do and republish. Oh well, I've only screwed Marty up by $1500 or so.
We tasted the SanGiovese/PN. It still has all the textbook character of that wine - light, fresh, fruity. Also tested a two year old SanG on guests who came over to dinner on Friday night. Kevin is a bit of a wine afficianado and regularly attends some wine group in Dublin so I though what better test. So, after we got rid of a nice Oregon White that I didn't drink (not Badger Mountain for God's sake) that I'll name later and a poor Cab (again, names later)I decanted the 2004 SanGiovese off into another bottle and just took it upstairs from the basement to drink.
So I sits the bottle on the table and then pour it out. At this point, Cynthia, who doesn't drink, tastes it and asks if it'smine, I said, "No". But she carries on about it even going so far as to ask if I took the foil cap off it. I said, "No" it's just an old bottle I picked up in France...in 1993?, "Yes". Anyway, I think I got away with it mainly because Kevin didn't feel obliged to comment on how good it was, in fact he drank it straight off and went on to finish three glasses of it. He didn't comment on it until the end of glass two when he declared it a good wine. Glass three followed him into the office where we were singing old '40s songs and dancing.
Another sign of it being good was that the following morning there were no glasses with remaining wine in them.
So, 2004, no sulfites and nothing else added/taken away and we have a good wine. Of course, it has been kept in a stable basement environment. Nice to see it kept the characteristics of the grape too.
Interesting development is that I ended up at the Bigelow store later in the day with Michael. That is our store. It has inpsired me to think of a sideline in grape skin and oatmeal scrubs and soaps. They were selling this (well not a scrub, but a face thing) in a small tube for $40. Apparently there's a big line of grape waste skin product out there that isn't FDA tested etc - just like the herbal, aroma remedies.
So, the sleepover girls are finally settling down now - after a day out, a late afternoon in the pool and an evening of girly flicks and I'm knackered. I Also think my son's finally growing up as for the first time, he has a tactical advantage over me in Axis and Allies - the game that takes 2 hours to set up and 3 weeks to play (if you're lucky). In fact, so desperate is my position I'm falling into the trap of going all out on a Russian offensive - and we all know how that went, but I need to knock out the Russian powerhouse - and squander short cash on fragile U-Boat warfare. He's opening me up on two fronts and I cannot distribute resources across them quick enough.